Apologies
by iceman817
Summary: An extended look at Betsy's visit to the Jean Grey School in Uncanny X-Force 25. Spoilers for UXF. Read and Review, please.


I don't own the X-men, obviously. I wrote another post-UXF 24 to detail how I felt about what happened at the end and this one occurs in the midst of 25, so, spoilers obviously.

* * *

Apologies

She couldn't do this. As Elisabeth Braddock briskly marched through the halls of the Jean Grey Institute for Higher Learning she clutched at her stomach, hoping to abate the growing nausea. How could she have possibly thought this was a good idea? Why was she even here? To walk up to the amnesia-riddled love of her life and tell him that she had just slept with another man, but it was okay because she was just checking to see if she would feel anything? That it had meant nothing and she still loved him?

Though it was true, she knew he didn't love her anymore. She had hoped that their few weeks apart would have done something for him…with each passing day she assumed that he remembered more. But in her heart of hearts she knew this not to be true because she knew Warren Worthington. She knew that the second he remembered that he would come find her. She knew he had no reason to believe that she did anything but love him with all of her heart, and she did, despite how last night's events may contradict that notion. But there he was, still as beautiful as she remembered, but completely devoid of the man that she loved. She had come here seeking the solace of his company, believing that after everything that had happened, he would provide her with reassurance and care; but she was leaving with the very high probability that her breakfast would be making a reappearance.

She needed to go somewhere. Away from Warren. Away from Logan and his squad of killers. Away from all of this. Maybe Utopia…she really had no idea what she needed. She had finally made it to the door. In five seconds she would be beyond the threshold and able to leave this whole world of nonsense behind her…four…three…tw-

"Where are you going?" She stopped cold and inwardly cringed. The one voice that she did not want to hear. There was a reason that she had asked to meet with Kitty, and not him. She slowly turned around, her eyes bore holes into the ground at his feet; she refused to meet his eyes.

"Where are you going?" Bobby Drake repeated, this time more deliberately, implying that his question was to be answered, preferably soon. She gave him a once over. He looked the same as he always had, short brown hair (or was it dirty blonde? She could never tell), disheveled clothes, an almost goatee, but something was different. The way he held himself perhaps. Judging by the way Kitty had spoken about him she assumed that she had something to do with it. He didn't seem to be the little boy who she'd have to lobotomize for sneaking a peak on her in the showers. _Not that she was the Virgin Mary_ Betsy thought, reminding herself of her transgression.

"I'm leaving." Betsy replied shortly.

Bobby raised an eyebrow at her, "I gathered that, funnily enough. The tone of my question implied more of a 'to where' and 'why'."

"To go anywhere else but here, and because I want to."

Bobby nodded and shoved his hands in his pockets, "Oh, that's nice. Didja get a chance to talk to Warren?"

"There is no Warren, Bobby." Betsy replied coldly. She wanted him to feel some of what was boiling inside of her. "There is a man with striking resemblance to the love of my life, and your best friend, who is also absolutely nothing like him."

Bobby's jaw set, "Hmph. And all those years of him talkin' you up, and he was dead wrong."

Betsy's eyebrows shot up, "Oh really?"

"I'm a lot of things Betts, and a quitter ain't one of 'em. Every time I've ever left the X-men it was for a reason. The first was because Warren and Jean convinced me to go with them, and the second was my father was beaten into a pulp and he needed me to help him recover. I don't care of it was Warren or friggin' Martha, these people are our family and we owe them everything we have."

"My family's dead Bobby. And I killed them." Betsy said and turned to walk out the door.

Bobby was having none of this he chased her outside and grabbed her shoulder to spin her around.

"Betsy-"

"Remove your hand from my arm." Betsy said, and immediately felt another sting in her stomach. She had said this less than a day ago to Jean-Phillipe. Maybe she'd sleep with Bobby too. Add him to the list.

"No." Bobby said firmly. "Krakoa? Chairs please." Betsy looked at him confused until the ground began to shake and two rocks shaped like lawn chairs emerged from it.

"What the bloody…"

"Our school is built on living land. No big deal. Sit." Bobby said pointing to the chair.

"No."

Bobby sighed, "Betsy, you're either going to sit and talk to me, or I'm going to follow you wherever it is you go and annoy you the whole way. Pick your poison."

Betsy cracked her knuckles dangerously. "Or I could just kick your ass and leave as planned."

Bobby shot her back an equally dangerous grin, "You could try. I know a few new tricks these days."

"So do I."

They stood there for a moment, staring at each other. Both wondering if the other would make a move. Finally, Betsy's shoulders slumped forward and she took a seat in one of the chairs.

"I knew you'd see it my way."

"Make this fast."

Bobby looked her up and down. She seemed different, "Why did you come here?"

"To see Warren."

He ran a hand through his hair, "That's bullshit and you know it. You know that if I had made progress with him, if he had even the SMALLEST memory of you, I'd have to kill him to stop from trying to get to you."

Hearing another person say these words made them more real, and somehow more painful. "I know." She said quietly.

"So, again, why did you come here?"

She looked at him searchingly. She knew that he would react even more negatively than Warren would. Warren would understand, at least on some level. Bobby knew one thing, loyalty and he did not see it in shades of grey. "I'm going to tell you what has happened to me over the last few days. You will be very angry with me, but I ask you to let me finish, and at least try to understand."

Bobby nodded, "Go on."

"Shortly after what happened with Warren, X-Force was whisked away to another mission. It seems that my brothers believed that Fantomex should be tried for crimes against the universe and put to death if convicted. Long story short things got…complicated. So complicated that all I can tell you is that I rescued Fantomex and was forced to kill my brother Jamie."

Bobby reached out to cover her hand with his, "Betts I'm…"

Betsy shook her head and pulled her hand back into her lap, "Don't be so quick to say that. While on this mission I had to give something up to save Fantomex and save the world…it was my sorrow. My ability to feel remorse, guilt, sadness, and the like." Betsy looked up at him, "I could flay you within an inch of your life right now and walk away unbothered by what I'd done."

Bobby itched the back of his neck uncomfortably, "Well, resists all urges to do that, please."

"When I returned from the mission…I needed to see how far this extended. I needed to know what I could and could not feel and what was going on inside of me. So…I…"

Bobby didn't break her gaze, "Just say it Betsy, so we can move past it."

"I slept with Fantomex."

Bobby's face immediately hardened. "You what?"

"Bobby. Please. Listen to me…"

Bobby was immediately out of his chair and pacing frantically. "Are you out of your mind? How could you just…sit there…and tell me that? That you just…with no regard…"

"Bobby, please. You have no idea…"

Bobby's eyes widened and Betsy recoiled for a moment. "_I_ have no idea? I HAVE NO IDEA?" He roared.

"YOU have no idea. D'you know what it's like? To sit here, day after day with your best friend trying to get him to remember who he is and who you are? To sit up at night and look at myself in the mirror and know that I can't fix him? To walk around lying to myself and everyone else and saying that I don't believe them when I know he's gone? You and Logan and all of you psychopaths made the mistake and I'M the one who's paying for it because I'M the one who gets reminded EVERY GODDAMN DAY! You and Logan just go off and do whatever bullshit you're doing and I have to deal with YOUR mess."

Now Betsy was standing, "How DARE you! I just buried my BROTHER!"

"And EVERY day I'm burying more and more of MINE!" He shouted back. "And I didn't just go and bone someone five minutes later!"

"I didn't sleep with him to betray Warren! I love Warren Worthington just as much as you do Drake. You're not the only one who was hurt by this."

Bobby's heavy breathing began to slow and the frost on his breath subsided, "Lady, you have about five minutes to explain yourself. And that's ONLY out of respect to Warren. I don't care what new butterfly powers you have, you can't take me."

Betsy sat back down, "I slept with Fantomex to see what I would feel afterwards. Yes, Bobby, I would be lying to you if I said there hadn't been some sexual tension between the two of us; he's made his attraction to me quite apparent since the first day he joined X-Force. I slept with him to understand my feelings. After I did it, I felt no remorse. I did not feel that I had betrayed Warren, I did not feel guilty, and I did not feel like I had done anything wrong. I also did not feel anything for Fantomex. I had wondered, in the back of my mind, why it was that I had not given in to Fantomex earlier. Warren and I had very quickly jumped back into our relationship and were declaring love for one another before we had truly even spoken about our feelings. There were two things that were potentially stopping me from giving in, the first was love for Warren, and the second was guilt for what it would do to him. If it was the later then that would mean that I did not love Warren, and I did have genuine feelings for Fantomex. By eliminating my capacity for guilt, I would know what the real answer was. When I woke up this morning, I had no attachment to Fantomex. It confirmed the suspicion that guilt was gone, but it also confirmed that the reason I'd stayed away was because I loved Warren."

"You have some twisted logic. You slept with another man just to double check if you loved the guy you planned to marry. Awesome."

Betsy stared at him, "You're right. It was not the appropriate course of action, but it was a necessary one. It is why I cam here, to see him. To tell him that I loved him and will continue to love him. I hoped that he would at least be on the road to being back, but when I discovered that road may not even be a possibility, I couldn't face him."

They sat there in silence for a moment. Suddenly, Bobby snorted, which caught Betsy by surprise, "Y'see what happens when you guys don't include me in stuff? Worthy thinks he's an angel and you're getting plowed by a Frenchman. This is what the world has come to."

Betsy chuckled, in spite of herself, "I suppose you're right."

Bobby looked at her seriously now, "I don't agree with what you did, but, then again, I don't have to. If it was something you felt you needed to do, then it's on you. I'm not a part of your relationship with Warren. If the two of you can understand what happened, then it's your business. You should just know that he loved you, very much, and didn't want anything more than to leave the X-men behind and go off to wherever with you."

Betsy looked at the ground, "That's all I wanted too," she said softly.

"Then help me." Bobby said, "Help him. Rachel, and Kitty, and Hank, and whoever else can say it 'til they're blue in face but I _know_ he's in there. I _will_ fix him. The question is, will you be waiting on the other side when he's back."

Betsy nodded. "I will."

"Good." He stood up and offered her a hand. "Come on." She took his hand and he led her to where the students were playing football.

"Angel!" Bobby shouted and Betsy's breath hitched when he turned to look at them.

Warren walked over and placed a hand on Bobby's shoulder, "Hello, Robert."

Bobby clapped him on the back, "Good to see you, buddy." He gestured to Betsy, "This is Betsy."

Warren nodded inspecting her curiously, "I know her. She was there when I was in the snow bank."

Bobby looked at him curiously, "You told me you don't remember anything before coming to the school."

Warren's gaze still hadn't lifted from Betsy, "I don't. But I remember her."

Bobby turned to Betsy, his eyebrows raised, "Well wouldja look at that." Betsy had a hand over a broad grin, tears running down her cheeks. "I'd say that's a start…I'll leave you two alone." Bobby took one last look over his shoulder as Betsy and Warren both sat down and began to talk. He walked to the archway of the building where Kitty stood waiting for him.

"I thought she was leaving."

Bobby shook his head, "Nah. She'll be here for a while."

Kitty wrapped an arm around his waist and leaned into his shoulder, "You're persistent Mr. Drake."

Bobby smiled and wrapped an arm around her shoulders, "For my family? Always."

* * *

Well, there it is. I made the call a few weeks that Betsy didn't care about Fantomex, she was basically just testing her feelings, and I was right. I was hoping they wouldn't wind up SLEEPING together but if it needed to happen, I guess it needed to happen. The only things that worries me is that she said it would never happen again, which means one of three things. One, that it'll probably happen again in two issues, two that Psylocke will die, or three that Fantomex will die. Option three would make me happy, but who knows? I'm working on a Scott/Bobby reunion oneshot that ties into AvX also, it may be up by the weekend, we'll see.


End file.
